Grace Jones @ the Roundhouse, London, January 27 2009 

80's style-icon Grace Jones still has it. And one doubts whether she actually ever lost it

Out of all of the 80's pop icons such as Boy George, George Michael and Michael Jackson, perhaps Ms. Jones has the most remaining dignity intact.  Mind you, Madonna may have something to say about that - but she does not count in this equation as she is a law unto herself.
 
There is no doubting that Ms. Jones has remained in impeccable shape.   Most twenty-something women would kill to have a body like her.   However, in this ageist society, perhaps discussion about age is rather pointless.  As one person in the audience cuttingly put it, "If you came and saw Grace Jones and she actually looked her age, then you would have reason to be disappointed".  Tough audience.  Good thing that Ms. Jones looks half her age, I suppose.
 
By the end of her gig at the Roundhouse at the first London show of her "Hurricane" tour, I was left feeling my age - it was raucously good fun.  Opening up her set teetering high on a platform above the stage sporting a captivating outfit, it was patently obvious that this was not going to be a run-of-the-mill performance by Ms. Jones.
 
Slipping in and out of various outfits over the course of the night (at one stage Ms. Jones even frolicked around in practically a G-string and certainly was not shy showing off her bum to the audience), the crowd was left guessing as to what she was going to be wearing next and whether in fact she was going to be wearing anything.  This fear (or maybe hope in some people's mind) was compounded by her suggestive whisperings into the microphone between songs.  All of this added up to lead me to one conclusion – that the only thing conservative about this gig was the suited gentleman blocking my view.
 
This was Ms. Jones at her most daring and captivating - it is little wonder that she has built up such an enormous reputation over her career.  There is no doubting her stage presence.  Imagine what she would have been like to see back in the 80's when she very colorfully "graced" the film, fashion and music worlds?
 
The ultimate moment of the night came during her performance of "Pull up to the Bumper" when she let a crowd of revelers onto the stage while an electric fan pushed tinsel over the gleeful crowd. 

From her new album "Hurricane", there is no doubt that "William's Blood" is the stand-out track.  Some of the other tracks fall a little flatter in atmosphere and sound akin to trip-hop.  No doubt that this is the influence of Tricky and Massive Attack who were called on by Ms. Jones to assist her in the making of "Hurricane".  There is also an underlying reggae sound to some of her new tunes, tracing back to her Caribbean roots.
 
This was a brilliant performance by the sixty year old Grace, who in her own words on the night says that she cannot help herself when she "sees pretty men".  Just like the lyrics to "Corporate Cannibal" suggest, Ms. Jones is indeed a man eating machine.